The chief of the North Port Police Department has said “human error” led to a surveillance team mistaking Brian Laundrie for his mother.
Officers from North Port police believed they had spotted Mr Laundrie returning to his parents home several days after his girlfriend Gabby Petito was reported missing, but it later emerged it was his mother Roberta Laundrie.
It’s now believed Mr Laundrie may have already been dead at the time.
Todd Garrison said once they realised the mistake, it was important to acknowledge it publicly.
“As a leader, what do I do?” Mr Garrison told an audience at the South County Tiger Bay Club in Venice, Florida, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.
“Do I not tell the public what’s going on, do we conceal it, cover it up?
“No, people want open, transparency and honesty from their law enforcement officials,” he added.
Mr Garrison told a press conference the day after the mistaken sighting that his officers knew where Brian Laundrie was.
“Yes, we made a mistake it was human error but I still stand behind my team,” Mr Garrison said.
“We are out there in the public for making a human error; the surveillance team told me ‘Chief, Brian was seen going inside the house,’” he added.
Mr Laundrie’s parents reported their son as missing to law enforcement on Friday 17 September.
Mr Garrison said when his officers went out to the Laundrie home to take the missing persons report, he hoped they would “find Brian hiding in a back bedroom”.
“I was hoping, maybe it was a ploy. It wasn’t.”
